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Wholesale of pharmaceutical and medical goods

Current registrations 1,864division 46: 61,491
Starters, 12 months 824.4 per 100 · Belgium 8.9
Bankruptcies, 12 months 73.8 per 1,000 registrations · Belgium 6.2
Employment (FTE) 17,386445 employers · latest accounts
Median age 14.9 yearsBelgium 8.1 years
E-invoicing via Peppol 69.4%1,294 of 1,864 companies in the Peppol Directory · Belgium 85.0%

Filed accounts

NACE 46460 · financial year 2025 · 1,076 filed annual accounts
Median solvency
42.2%
division 42.2% · Belgium 46.1%
Median net result
€69,694
division €17,217 · Belgium €16,520
Median equity
€506,656
division €207,401 · Belgium €98,421
Loss-making
23.3%
division 28.8% · Belgium 26.7%
Negative equity
9.3%
division 13.4% · Belgium 12.4%
Median return on equity
13.1%
division 9.9% · Belgium 15.9%
Median liquidity
1.71
division 1.69 · Belgium 1.66
Filed late
34.3%
financial year 2024, 1,142 filings · division 39.2% · Belgium 38.4%
Missing or 90 days late
5.9%
of 1,168 companies with annual accounts · division 6.4% · Belgium 5.4%
Per financial year202020212022202320242025
Median solvency 40.6%40.9%41.8%40.8%40.7%42.2%
Median net result €63,779€78,126€66,574€54,557€63,822€69,694

Hold your customer's or competitor's figures against them in the Sector benchmark

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies, 5 years, still registered
12
0.64% of the registrations · Belgium 1.68%
Running bankruptcies
17
9.1 per 1,000 registrations

Recent bankruptcies

Date Company
07-10-2026 CTL Lab Belgium
BE 0666.691.490
02-07-2026 AGRIZO
BE 0871.883.312
12-06-2026 GREEN GROWN RETAIL STORES
BE 0728.489.893
23-03-2026 A&M INTERNATIONAL TRADING & CONSULTING
BE 0765.691.868
28-01-2026 KAPCARE
BE 0680.977.810
24-12-2025 OXYPOINT
BE 0832.604.943
10-12-2025 ANS
BE 0779.787.948
20-11-2024 Qvella Corporation Belgium
BE 0742.829.760

Every bankruptcy in division 46, last 90 days

Spread across the country

by region and province · 1,833 of 1,864 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat
  • Flanders 842 · 45.9%
  • Wallonia 295 · 16.1%
  • Brussels 235 · 12.8%
  • Abroad 461 · 25.2%
fewer moremax 255

Largest employers

NACE 46460 as first main activity · staff from the latest accounts
  1. 1 UCB PHARMAAnderlecht 1,961 FTEfinancial year 2025
  2. 2 FEBELCOSint-Niklaas 948 FTEfinancial year 2025
  3. 3 TERUMO EUROPELeuven 721 FTEfinancial year 2026
  4. 4 BECTON DICKINSON DISTRIBUTION CENTERTemse 475 FTEfinancial year 2023
  5. 5 VWR INTERNATIONALLeuven 461 FTEfinancial year 2022

Joint committees

from the latest accounts of 634 companies
  • 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 396
  • 207 White-collar workers in the chemical industry 132
  • 100 Auxiliary committee for blue-collar workers 69
  • 116 Chemical industry 46
  • 149.04 Metal trade 26
  • 321 Wholesale distributors of medicines 22
  • 201 Independent retail 19
  • 313 Pharmacies and pricing offices 18
Show the 12 others
  • 340 Orthopaedic technologies 10
  • 149.01 Electricians: installation and distribution 9
  • 226 White-collar workers in international trade, transport and logistics 7
  • 209 White-collar workers in metal manufacturing 5
  • 149 Sectors related to metal, mechanical and electrical engineering 4
  • 111 Metal, mechanical and electrical engineering 3
  • 119 Food trade 3
  • 314 Hairdressing and beauty care 3
  • 140.03 Road transport and logistics for third parties 2
  • 330.03 Health institutions and services 2
  • 330.04 Health institutions and services 2
  • 109 Clothing and garment industry 1

Source: the annual accounts at the National Bank. One filing can name more than one committee.

Division 46: Wholesale trade

Related activities

27 other activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Wholesale of clothing, excluding workwear and underwear46423 1,263 50 11 5,432
Wholesale of other household goods46499 1,144 32 4 2,223
Wholesale of electrical household appliances and audio-video equipment46431 963 35 10 3,564
Wholesale of perfume and cosmetics46450 774 41 5 2,584
Wholesale of household textiles and bedding46412 667 7 5 1,696
Wholesale of non-electrical household articles46494 661 9 9 2,364
Show all 27 activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Wholesale trade46496 567 16 6 3,188
Wholesale trade46480 550 16 1 486
Wholesale trade46442 463 16 4 1,983
Wholesale trade46492 325 6 3 1,490
Wholesale trade46471 323 16 7 787
Wholesale trade46474 266 9 1 477
Wholesale trade46419 231 12 4 244
Wholesale trade46497 226 21 0 336
Wholesale trade46432 222 4 2 1,140
Wholesale trade46495 202 9 4 264
Wholesale trade46425 192 2 0 425
Wholesale trade46421 191 9 0 378
Wholesale trade46493 190 13 1 643
Wholesale trade46411 180 8 4 317
Wholesale trade46491 161 6 1 867
Wholesale trade46472 130 3 1 184
Wholesale trade46498 114 3 2 738
Wholesale trade46424 94 7 1 73
Wholesale trade46473 64 2 1 68
Wholesale trade46441 60 1 0 76
Wholesale trade46422 41 1 1 40

Bankruptcies per year in division 46

Per year201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026
Bankruptcies803710738687722486417583541625634425
Jobs lost1,6291,6551,3611,2161,2401,0548901,0299351,3831,271931

2026 through September. Every bankruptcy, also of companies that have since left the register. Source: Statbel (Directorate-General Statistics), NACE classification of 2008.

Staff cost per FTE in NACE division 46

9,639 employers
Median
€64,900
Belgium €61,400
Middle half
€51,300 to €84,400
half of the employers lie between
Place among sectors
44 of 78
sectors with a median staff cost per FTE, highest first
By size class
SizeMedianMiddle halfEmployers
fewer than 10 FTE €60,500 €47,700 to €78,600 6,072
10 to 49 FTE €70,000 €57,700 to €89,100 2,910
50 to 249 FTE €84,000 €67,400 to €119,200 558
250 FTE or more €80,100 €64,800 to €98,300 99

Running bankruptcies in the sector

NACE division 46
Number
1,337
Half have run longer than
23 months
Belgium: 20 months
Longer than three years
34%
Belgium: 31%

Measured nationally: Of 108,562 bankruptcies of legal entities across Belgium, 49% were closed within five years for insufficient assets and 28% after liquidation, 3% were withdrawn. After five years, 20% were still open. Half had ended after 26 months (a quarter after 15, three quarters after 51 months).

This counts companies with this main activity in the register on 6 November 2026. The outcome itself is not measured by sector. The activity of a company that leaves the register after its bankruptcy is too often not kept to compare closed cases fairly.

Outcome by court and division

Foreign control in NACE division 46

45,472 registered companies

Subsidies in this sector

per register · legal entities with an enterprise number
  • Flemish subsidies €266.7m awarded 6,714 recipients · 2022 to 2025 · largest: Dienstencheques
  • Federal transfers 21.5m amount as published 14 recipients · 2023 to 2025 · largest: Ondersteuning aan de bijdrage van de organisaties van de civiele maatschappij en institutionele actoren in de realisatie van de doelen van de gemeenschappelijke strategische kaders (cf. art. 2.14.6 en 2.14.10 van de wetsbepalingen)
  • Wallonia-Brussels Federation €1.3m paid 17 recipients · 2021 to 2025 · largest: Conventions et contrats programmes indexés dans le domaine des centres culturels
  • EU budget €531.5m attributed share 96 recipients · 2021 to 2025 · largest: Information and communication technology
  • EU research €52.9m EU contribution 83 recipients · 2007 to 2027 · largest: Horizon 2020

Explore every recipient in this sector

Insights on Wholesale of pharmaceutical and medical goods

Balance sheet and result. The median net result of €69,694 is above Belgium's €16,520. 9.3% of the annual accounts show negative equity, against 12.4% in Belgium. Return on equity of 13.1% is below Belgium's 15.9%.

Bankruptcies. In 12 months, 3.8 of 1,000 companies went bankrupt, against 6.2 in Belgium. That is fewer than in 53% of the 88 NACE divisions. The median bankruptcy probability of 0.3% is above Belgium's 0.2%.

Inflow and structure. 1.4% of the companies are sole traders, against 41.6% in Belgium. Half of the companies are younger than 14.9 years, against 8.1 years in Belgium. In 12 months, 4.4 of 100 companies started, against 8.9 in Belgium. That is fewer than in 75% of the 87 NACE divisions.

Staff and filing. 34.3% of the financial year 2024 accounts were filed late, against 38.4% in Belgium. The 5 largest employers hold 4,566 of the 17,386 FTE: 26.3%.

Direction. Median solvency rose from 40.6% in financial year 2020 to 42.2% in financial year 2025.

The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other divisions is as of 06-11-2026 05:30.

Method and sources

Every company registered today counts under its main activities in the KBO. Establishment units do not count. Staff counts once, under the employer's first main activity, from its latest accounts and only where it fits the staff costs. The count follows the NACE 2025 classification, the version in which code 46460 exists.

The bankruptcies over five years count only companies still registered today, because the activity of a company that left the register is not kept. So they are fewer than the bankruptcies of those years, and the figure is not a probability for the future. Over twelve months the count is nearly complete, because a bankrupt company stays registered while its bankruptcy runs. A company with more than one main activity counts in each of those sectors.

The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other NACE divisions rests on an overview of every division, counted again each night. Each division is counted in the version of the NACE classification in which it exists. A standing such as "more than in 80%" compares with the other divisions that have the figure. A division's bankruptcy probability is the median over its companies with a score. Belgium here counts the 1,276,581 companies with a main activity, because only those belong to a division. The other 698,987 registrations publish no activity.

Each median is the value of the middle company, computed over the annual accounts of financial year 2025, and is shown only from 30 accounts. A share (loss-making, negative equity) counts that year's accounts with that trait. Accounts are late when they are filed after the statutory deadline. The direction per financial year follows the companies still registered today. Missing or 90 days late counts the companies with accounts missing today, or whose latest were filed more than 90 days after the deadline. The dossier follows the same rule.